CH.IV THE FORT 45

"But certainly he can have permission to visit the Castle
at Enkendaal," the Commandant replied. The words
Enkendaal and Kasteel fascinated him; he could no more
keep them out of his conversation than he could prevent
his corseted body from inclining a little whenever the
Baron van Leyden addressed him. "But Mr. Alison," he
added, "has always refused to take leave."

"Och!" said the Baron. "How is that? Julie says you
taught her when she was a child. I wish you'd teach 'her
again. She needs discipline, heaven knows! . . . But,
though I'm not a scholar, I know their ways. My uncle
Dirk would never leave his books unless it suited him.
Invite yourself when you please."

The idea of having a pupil, a mind that he might
impregnate, filled Lewis with excitement. Into his con-
versation with the Baroness this excitement entered. He
laughed with her, and pleased her more than he had done
hitherto; but he was thinking that, in the days when he
had gone to Natton Lodge to teach Julie, Mrs. Quillan
had appeared to be heavy and dull, with the beauty of a
stiff flower always drooping towards him on its long stem,
and that the child, full of fire and grace, had never seemed
to be her daughter.

"You did not bring the beautiful Madame de Narwitz
to-day?" the Commandant ventured, hoping that this
compliment would recommend him to Julie's mother.
"No, no, of course," he added hastily, seeing a shadow
pass across the Baroness's face. "It would be difficult....
I understand."

"No," said the Baroness, with sharpness in her tone.
Then, turning to Lewis: "She wished to come. She
wanted, she said, to see her schoolmaster in his cage."

At this the Commandant laughed heartily, wrinkling his
lips under his clipped, white moustache, pressing his gloved
hands to his waist and throwing back his head. The Baroness
stared at him coolly for a moment; then turned away.

It was understood before the van Leydens went that
Ballater was to visit them early in June. Meanwhile, the